Severe drought, insect infestation and poor forest management have combined in recent years to kill millions of trees in the American West -- 130 million in California alone -- and provide fuel for huge wildfires.

The world's nations will gather at a U.N. conference in South Korea on Monday to review and approve a 20-page bombshell -- distilled from more than 6,000 scientific studies -- laying out narrowing options for staving off climate catastrophe.

Nearly 400 people were killed when a powerful quake sent a tsunami barrelling into the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, officials said Saturday, as hospitals struggled to cope with hundreds of injured and rescuers scrambled to reach the stricken region.

An ardent critic of an Australian rare earths plant in Malaysia said Tuesday she will head a government review into the controversial site after her political alliance took power at landmark elections.